Seeing more of England

My friend Joe and I took the train on Saturday to visit friends on the south coast. One lives in Southampton and the other in Portsmouth. Those towns have huge rivalries dating back to when they were competing port towns, but now the (actual) hatred (!) exists mostly because they are rival football teams.


Joe and Kate in front of a medieval wall in Southampton. The rest was destroyed by the Luftwaffe.


Joe, me and Kate at her apartment. Nice face, Joe.


Katie and Joe in a very cute pub in Portsmouth.


The pub was on a hill overlooking the city. Here's the view:

I'm still getting free glass, even in England

This little place is just down the street from me and made me really happy when I first noticed it. I half expected to see my mom inside. :)

I popped in there Saturday morning to see if they'd sell me a piece of glass to rest my hair straightener on (I am very fire safety conscious after my years as an RD) and they cut me a piece right on the spot and gave it to me for free. I'm a bit of a novelty in my area, so I think they enjoyed an American woman walking in talking about her family's similar shop!

Not really a town

My friend Jason and I went to Chinatown the other night for dinner. It's pretty and interesting, but I particularly like it because my favorite English comedians used to talk a lot about how Chinatown's "not really a town".

Someone recently animated a short clip from one of the many times they talked about Chinatown on their old radio show.

I moved, and how

About a week ago and a half ago I started to move into my "permanent" flat. Before I left the US, I set up a temporary living situation and now I'm in my own place with a regular lease.

The place is great, but moving without a car, and on my own was definitely an experience. And I had more than week to move so I decided to just take trips on the bus to get everything over there. The 321 bus goes from right near the one flat to the right outside the other, so it seemed do-able.

And it was, mostly. I had one large suitcase with wheels which took a few trips, but mostly it was the good old granny trolley that did it! In fact it now feels very odd to walk around without it (although it continues to accompany me to the mall and IKEA etc!)

A few shots of the thing in action. Best £20 I ever spent, by the way.















It also happens to work pretty well as a clothes rack. :)

Crowds

I had a strange juxtaposition of experiences yesterday and today.

Yesterday I went to the Notting Hill Carnival, the 2nd biggest street festival in the world (Rio has the biggest). It's attended by about a million people and was started by the West Indian inhabitants of that section of London in the mid-60s and now is this huge event. It's pretty incredible - music, floats, food, and just loads of people dancing and drinking and having a great time!


My friend Odette from work (middle) and her son Cai and friend Sophie







Very interesting little section, which was set against this old church






Just one of about a million piles of "rubbish" - at 2pm! Imagine what it must have been like by night!






Today is a holiday in England, so my friend Seana and I both had the day off and took a tour of the Victorian Highgate Cemetery in North London. It's the burial place of Karl Marx, George Eliot, Douglas Adams, and lots of other famous people. Also lots of unfamous people - there's over 165,000 people remembered in this VERY overgrown and VERY packed (but beautiful) cemetery. I've never seen anything like it.




The entrance to the cemetery, Seana in front to the left







Seana and Karl Marx











Some beautiful pictures of the cemetery can be seen on Flickr -

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=highgate%20cemetery&w=all

My fake English accent

I'm assisting two people at my company, one of whom is the new chairwoman, who needs me to set up lots of meetings as she starts out there.

So, turns out that no one can understand her name when I say it over the phone. I have to say it a million times and spell it and they are still lost. So in desperation, I've taken to saying her name in an English accent. So when I speak it's like American accent, American accent, ENGLISH ACCENT Joanne Shaw, American accent, American accent. It's pretty funny.


Also yesterday for some reason I mentioned "Harry Potter" and the whole office fell into hysterics because of how I pronounce it (which is, of course, the same way you pronounce it if you're American.)

I'm gonna make it after all

OK, maybe this is preemptive since I still am temping, but today I put down a deposit on a "flat" (that's the fancy England term for apartment) and I really am loving my job.

This one's for you, Auntie Nanette -

One for old time's sake

I've been accused lately of being less camera-shy because of this blog. I'm not - I still absolutely hate having my picture taken, but my mother taught us to put a person in a picture as often as possible so it's not too boring. (Too much scenery ...zzzzzzzzz.)

So it's for my mom, leave me alone.

I walk now

My Gordon staff friends will remember me for basically walking from my apartment to my car, and my car to Starbucks or Shop & Shop. The end.
Well now I obviously walk a bit more than before, and I've been trying to explore my area a bit when I'm in the mood.

Went for a walk tonite and ended up in Greenwich, which I hadn't been to yet. It was lovely and kind of surprising to stumble upon!



Greenwich Pier overlooks Canary Wharf, the highest point in London






Bumped into the Old Royal Naval College








It looks like something that should be in France or Italy. Not walking distance from my house.











I was out for almost three hours and it poured rain on me (the idiot with no umbrella).



I was annoyed with a bus driver who didn't wait the three seconds it would have taken me to get to him after which I had to wait 25 minutes in the cold wind for the next bus while I was soaked. HOWEVER, it was all worth it because I got to see this incredible rainbow. The whole semi-circular bow!








It was worth this.

I suppose it's time I worked

OK yeah, it's been months since I had a regular job but of course I've been looking. In the meantime, I started temping this week for a branch of the NHS (that's the National Health Service, the UK healthcare system). I kinda lucked out, thanks to my new best friend Pamela from Lifeline Personnel.
The job is relatively close to me, decent pay, and honestly the most beautiful view you can imagine. Located on the South Bank of the River Thames, here's the site from my desk. Bear in mind this window is the length of the open office, all the way left of me to the end of the office.


The building I work in


Southwark Bridge (as seen from my window) from an outside view